14/10/2026
Young Skadi practising her short recalls from a sit — without food rewards! 🐾
These are very short, basic recalls, but the important part of this video isn’t the recall itself. It’s what happens when Skadi gets distracted or makes a mistake.
I’m continuing to reinforce her understanding of my negative marker, “Ah-ah”, which tells her that what she’s doing isn’t what I’ve asked for.
For me, having a clear positive marker and a clear negative marker is one of the most valuable foundations in dog training.
A clear GOOD and a clear NO.
Once your dog understands both, you’ve got the foundations to teach it pretty much anything.
Skadi has had very little food-based training. Instead, I’m building her understanding through consistent commands, body language, praise and clear communication.
I believe this is a much fairer way to train a dog. A dog should understand when it’s doing something right, but equally, it should understand when it’s made a mistake and have the opportunity to correct itself.
Clarity creates confidence, and consistency creates understanding.
One of the biggest problems I see in dog training is people using far too many words. Different commands, different tones, constantly changing body language and mixed messages.
We forget that dogs don’t speak English!
They learn through association, repetition, consistency and the way we communicate with them.
One command should mean one thing. Our words, timing and body language need to remain consistent so the dog has a clear understanding of what’s being asked.
When the dog gets it right, we praise and reinforce that behaviour. Once the dog genuinely understands a command, I believe it’s perfectly fair to communicate when it gets something wrong, too.
A negative marker shouldn’t create fear or confusion. It should simply provide clear information and give the dog the opportunity to make the right choice.
Dog training doesn’t need to be complicated. Sometimes less talking and clearer communication make all the difference.
